| Future Wars |
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| Developer(s) | Delphine Software International | | Publisher(s) | Delphine Software International | | Designer(s) | Paul Cuisset | | Engine | Cinematique | | Platform(s) | PC (DOS), Amiga, Atari ST | | Release date | 1989 | | Genre(s) | Adventure game | | Mode(s) | Single player | | Media | Floppy disk, CD-ROM | | Input methods | Mouse |
Future Wars (original name Les voyageurs du temps: la menace, aka Time Travelers: the menace, aka Adventures in Time) is an adventure game from Delphine Software International, released in 1989. The game is mainly the work of Paul Cuisset (story and programming) and Eric Chahi (graphics). The game was supposed to be the first of a series of adventure games revolving around time traveling (the series was supposed to be called Les voyageurs du temps, aka Time Travelers) but later episodes were never made.
StoryThe player starts the game as a window cleaner who is in the middle of cleaning the outside of a skyscraper, which is evidently part of a bustling metropolis, however the player can only see the surrounding scenery (a cityscape at sunset) by observing the reflection in the glass windows of the skyscraper. The year is 1989, which when Future Wars was first retailed could be reasonably understood as being present-day. The window cleaner the player controls is a figure dressed in white overalls who is standing on an electric elevator platform attached to the outside of the building. The game begins with another character referred to simply as 'Ed the boss' opening a window directly above the players character, only to reprimand him for slacking by banging his fist against the window ledge and appearing to be shouting a fair amount of verbal abuse with some vigor. (The game is entirely mute throughout apart from some background music and the occasional sound effect). The game takes the player to the middle ages, where the hero has the chance to jeopardize an alien plot to plant a long-delay time bomb and where he meets Lo'Ann, a special agent from the future sent there to do just that. The player is then taken to 44th century - Lo'Ann's home-age to meet the council. After a minor mishap and subsequently having to make his way through ravaged city of Paris II, the hero eventually gets aboard a shuttle that would take him to the council's home city, only to be kidnapped by Crughons - the aliens. Later, he is accused of collaboration with those aliens and only saved from execution in the very last minute. He and Lo'Ann then travel to cretaceous period to foil aliens' yet another attempt at planting the time bomb. Failing to arrive on time, the hero must board an alien spaceship and travel to their headquarters to neutralize the bomb from there. The game ends when, after succeeding in detonating the bomb long before the humans even appear on the surface of the earth (and providing quite a convenient explanation for the extinction of dinosaurs), the hero returns to 44th century to fight further battles against the cruel alien race.
GameplayFuture Wars was played by left-clicking for character movement, and right-clicking for character actions. The actions available in the right-click popup menu were: Operate, Examine, Take, Use and Inventory. Use had a subcategory which enabled the player to drag and select the items in their inventory. While compared to many modern adventure games, such as Myst, Future Wars might seem antiquated and crude, but it was in fact the forerunner of its day and possessed a standard of graphics that was unprecedented for its time and indeed is still enjoyed today, even if only for its nostalgic value.
Gameplay challengesThe gameplay of Future Wars wasn't ideal - the game suffered from an extremely linear story coupled with the fact that quite often, items found at certain stages of the game would be used much later. As the game didn't exactly give hints about the missing items, a player progressing through the game without the help of a walkthrough was forced to restore the game from some arbitrary earlier moment to check for any missing objects. Some objects in the game spanned only a few pixels, so to find them, the player would often have to resort to pixel hunting. The fact that the game used a "realistic" approach to examining on-screen objects, so descriptions varied depending on how far from an item player was at the time, didn't help either. All that meant that the game could be quite challenging despite its seemingly simple, linear story. Adding to the difficulty, the game also featured a few time-based puzzles as well as arcade sequences, which could pose difficulties for less arcade-savvy players.
Track listing- "Time Travellers" - 2:41
- "Alien's Rock" - 2:07
- "Future Sound" - 2:06
- "Rock'n Rocket" - 2:02
- "Sweet Sensation" - 3:00
- "The Cold Ice" - 2:49
- "Metaphysical Choirs" - 2:36
- "Heart Of The Country" - 2:00
- "Bad Travel" - 2:38
- "Nasty Story" - 0:42
- "Blue Spinning Wheel" - 2:17
CreditsThe following are the credits as displayed during the end-game sequence of the Amiga version of the game: The IBM PC version was credited to Daniel Morais.
Trivia- A PC CD-ROM version of Future Wars was later released and distributed by Sony Electronic Publishing. The CD-ROM had remastered music for each of the themes played at different locations throughout the game.
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